Jumbo Seafood (NSRCC)

Mention the name Jumbo Seafood and the first image that pops to mind is the gigantic boat against a backdrop of neon glowing lights as you are taking a motorboat to the floating palace-like restaurant in Hong Kong. In Singapore, however, its a restaurant with the sign of a boat and the attitude of Hong Kong in that, everything needs to be done fast. Order fast, reach on time and serve fast.
The restaurant started back in 1987, this home grown business has since opened 9 outlets with 2 in Japan over the last 22 years. I'm not able to determine if there is any connection between this and the Hong Kong restaurant but i guess in the end, its the food that counts. So without further ado, lets dive in.

Location: 10 Changi Coast Walk Safra Resort Singapore 499739

Contact: 65523435

Website: http://www.jumboseafood.com.sg/

Price range: $45-50 per head

Personally, i've never been to the Safra Resort and i must say, i was quite impressed. It looked just like a country club, at discount prices for our guys serving the nation. Its a shame if they didn't make good use of the place. The restaurant, on the other hand, was packed with people and as you can see from the shots, quite huge. Simple carpetted floors with multiple big round tables spread evenly throughout the floor. I like the fact that the layout was simple and no nonsense.
The following will be the food we had. We ordered 2 set meals to feed 20 people at $437.80 per set.

Jumbo Appetiser Platter

Surprisingly, the appetiser platter contains rather heavy food items like deep fried dough with squid paste and mayonnaise, braised duck, donut with seafood paste and jellyfish. Everything on this was hot apart from the jellyfish. Everything is a little oily but otherwise good. The appetising items were the duck and and jellyfish which were predominantly sour and appetite rousing.

Steamed Live Prawns

Big, scrumptious and crunchy fresh prawns always get me in a good mood. This really isn't about cooking, simply boil fresh and huge prawns for a good time. And i have to say, their prawns were sweet and huge. Good stuff.

Shark's Fin with Seafood Soup

Do not let the name fool you. I'm suspecting this is seafood soup with some shark's fin thrown in. Why so? There's so much seafood in the soup, its difficult to ignore. Shrimp, mushrooms, fish, shark's fin and even beancurd. Add the fact that its less starchy and the shark's fin is rather difficult you can see why i suspect the above. However, i'm not saying its bad by any means, its just not shark's fin soup per se.

Scallops and Asparagus

Scallops were rather plump and springy but otherwise a very standard dish.

Jumbo Chilli Crab

Jumbo Pepper Crab

Deep Fried Buns

Finally, something done right. Huge Sri Lankan crabs, about 4 crabs prepared in different styles per set. Out of this, the favored style will be the chili crab which went well with the fried buns as usual. The crabs were definitely fresh and wasn't overcooked since the meat does not stick to the shell and were sweet. The chili style however, felt more like tomato since it wasn't spicy in the least bit. The black pepper version had the same trademark freshness and was more spicy and fragrant then the chili version. Of the 2 i'd say the black pepper version was done better.

Groupa done HK Style

Once again ,this was fresh, sweet and cooked just right. The meat literally melts in your mouth. Consistency is suspect though since the other table had a fish that was overcooked.

Longevity Noodles

After having all the items above, the noodles arrived to finish everyone off. Having had bad noodles before, i had a phobia for these things. The upside is, this is actually done well. The noodles were chewy yet soft. The flavor is apparent and fragrant. I managed to finish this bowl but couldn't stuff anymore even though i wanted to.

Dessert

Honey sea coconut with longan.....i guess this says it all doesn't it?

Bill

The bill knocked my socks off at a whooping $1009.09 for 20 people.

Ambiance: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Food: 6.5/10
Value for money: 6/10
Final score: 6/10

Last word:

I find the bill to be a little too much for the quality of food we had. Is the food bad? Definitely not! The ingredients were fresh and the cook had a good grasp of the timing for the dishes. The only problem is, i could find this at a coffee shop for less then 1/4 of the price minus air conditioning and service. Still, i had a good time meeting most of my family again during this occasion so it wasn't all bad. Could be better though.